The Defund Movement in 2024: Frontline Reporters Separate Myth from Reality

VIRTUAL EVENT WITH LAURA FLANDERS AND GUEST JOSH PAUL, FORMER STATE DEPT OFFICIAL

If you’re a member supporter you will have just received an exclusive invitation to a rare insider briefing on US - Israel arms sales from former state department official , Josh Paul. Paul, as you may remember quit the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs after a long career last year over accelerated US  arms sales to Israel in violation of us Human Rights law.  He continues to call for a change in United States Policy and an end to the bloodshed and on June 17th he’ll be offering us an expert briefing on the concrete requests we can make of our elected officials. We all want to stop the stop the dying and killing and hostage taking., urgently.  Paul will help tell us how. You can find our award winning interview with Josh Paul from last year.  Listen to the podcast and/or watch the show at our YouTube channel.  And if you’re not yet a member, but want to attend the briefing, it’s not too late to make a donation at Lauraflanders.org, and we’ll send you an invitation to register for the event.  That briefing’s coming up June 17th — Don’t miss it.

EPISODE DESCRIPTION:  Four years after the murder of George Floyd and the mass protests against policing that followed, corporate media claim that voters have turned on “defunding the police" — the movement to shift public resources away from policing and into other approaches to improving public health and safety. But what is fact and what is fiction when it comes to this issue, and where does the 'defund' movement stand? In this episode, three journalists reporting from the frontlines on matters of policing and prisons share what they see on the ground, within police departments, and in the media. Cerise Castle is a Los Angeles-based reporter who created “A Tradition of Violence”, a podcast about gangs inside the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, based on an extensive investigation into more than five decades of terror, murder and abuse; Lewis Raven Wallace, of Durham, NC, is the author and creator of “The View from Somewhere”, a book and podcast about the problematic political history of journalistic objectivity, and the Abolition Journalism Fellow at Interrupting Criminalization, a multi movement resource hub for advocates, and Kelly Hayes is a Menominee author, organizer, educator and photographer from Chicago. She also hosts the Truthout podcast “Movement Memos" and is co-author (with Mariame Kaba) of the book “Let This Radicalize You”. What is the corporate media getting wrong about the defund movement? All that, plus a commentary from Laura.

“I thought about my own vulnerability when doing this reporting. While I was still reporting my initial series on deputy gangs, I received several messages from people inside the department that they were in fear for my life . . . The repercussions have been very real for me, but it is not anything that would ever stop me from doing this work.” - Cerise Castle

“When I look at what's happening in Palestine and I see the AI targeting that's being used to select targets for assassination at an inhuman pace, and when I look at the mass surveillance apparatus that Palestinian people are subjected to and most importantly the normalization of this mass annihilation of people, I see threats to all of us, things that we should all expect to be pervasive.” - Kelly Hayes

“We have to some extent defunded the police here in the city of Durham and . . . moved money out of the police budget and into a whole new city department that is geared toward community safety through non-police responses . . . People can call an alternative number and have trained crisis responders show up . . . and come without police.” - Lewis Raven Wallace

Guests:

•. Cerise Castle: Journalist

•. Kelly Hayes: Host, Movement Memos; Co-Author, Let This Radicalize You

•. Lewis Raven Wallace: Author, The View from Somewhere; Abolition Media Fellow, Interrupting Criminalization

Full Episode Notes are located HERE.  They include related episodes, articles, and more.

Music In the Middle:  “We Need Freedom” by Brkn Record aka Jake Ferguson featuring Jermain Jackman from his self released album The Architecture of Oppression Part 2 released on BBE, Barely Breaking Even Records. And additional music included- "In and Out" and "Steppin" by Podington Bear

Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer;  Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O’Conner-Senior Consulting Producer.

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ACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel